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Our Team

Our Guide Service and Summer Camp Team

Our backpacking guides and outdoor educators are the key ingredient to our success at Lasting Adventures. While we all come from different backgrounds, we all share a passion for adventure, our National Parks, and sharing experiences with others to creates memories that last a lifetime. Our guide staff is a wise and energetic group that understands the importance of professionalism, caring, and risk management. Some of our guides were once youth participants themselves before growing into their present roles, while others have been selected for the backgrounds and experiences they have with youth and within the outdoor environment. Many of our outdoor educators carry off-season jobs as teachers, naturalists, counselors, or other youth-focused professions, and many of us live in the Sierra Nevada. On most trips, you will have the pleasure of getting to know multiple guides!

Prior to each backpacking season our guides come together for a week-long staff training to prepare and refresh their skills. We have fun covering serious practices, playing games and reviewing protocols—essentially using the same Adventure Based Programming model we facilitate on our youth, group, school, and corporate adventures. We’re more than coworkers—we’re a team—and we work hard, live, and adventure together all summer!

On every youth trip there is a guide-participant ratio of at most 1:6, but in most cases the ratio is 1:5 or lower. Each trip will also typically have at least one male and one female outdoor educator. (Except for our all-female Young Women’s Adventure Programs which will have two of our dynamic female staff.)

For our guide service, day trips, and backpacking trips, we staff each adventure with 1 or 2 veteran guides who bring with them significant backcountry experience. Ratios do not exceed 1:6; and are often 1:5 or lower is more common.

Each of our team members holds current Wilderness First Responder and CPR certifications and has passed an extensive background check, including a criminal history report. Furthermore, our guides are selected for being outstanding backcountry specialists, and of course, extremely fun to hang out with!

Looking to join our team? Check out our Employment Page

Join Us For Staff Training!

Administrative Staff

Scott

Founder/Executive Director

Scott is the Founder and Executive Director for Lasting Adventures, Inc and has been facilitating the Yosemite High Country Adventure since 1997 in which he has personally logged over 5,000 miles as a guide and instructor in the Yosemite backcountry. As both a credentialed school administrator and counselor, Scott has well over 30 years of experience working with youth. Scott attended Sonoma State University in California where he obtained both his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Masters in Counseling. Scott holds certification in Basic Backpacking Awareness, is certified as a Wilderness First Responder by the Wilderness Medicine Institute of the National Outdoor Leadership School, and he is trained as an Outdoor Emergency Care professional. In addition to actively instructing and guiding the Yosemite High Country Adventure and through community collaborations and support, Scott has also successfully developed many other youth development programs; and he is also a requested presenter on these topics. When not in Yosemite, you might be able to catch Scott on the slopes snowboarding in Tahoe.

Will

Operations Director

Will Heaps started his outdoor education in Appalachia, found his passion for adventure in the Rockies, and found his home in the Sierra Nevada. Thanks to parents that booked campsites instead of hotel rooms to save on travel expenses, he is quite comfortable laying his head close to the ground to sleep. Along the path to becoming an Eagle Scout, Will learned the outdoor survival skills that have given him the confidence to leave behind civilization and live in the wilderness. Will began camping as a child, backpacking as a teenager, and climbing/canyoneering in college. He graduated with a degree in Therapeutic Recreation and worked near Zion National Park as a therapist. Finding that he yearned to spend even more time in the wild, he left behind the life of a therapist and went full time into guiding with Lasting Adventures during the summer of 2015. Will loves being a guide because it affords him the opportunity to invite others to share in the experiences that have given him the hope to carry on through difficult times. When your life is simple enough to fit all necessary possessions in a backpack, you have plenty of room left to fill yourself with happiness and adventure. He now finds joy in teaching those same skills to his life partner and two daughters.

Matthew

Education and Curriculum Director

Matt is an outdoor educator and guide who loves working in the outdoors. He graduated with a degree in Outdoor/Adventure Education in 2019 and has since been traveling, teaching, climbing, and exploring all over the country. Matt enjoys spending his time rock climbing and on remote adventures, especially around Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. He is also very passionate about education. In addition to showing people how much fun the mountains can be, Matt works hard to teach people about the amazing natural wonders of our planet, and the importance of protecting wild places. Matt is really looking forward to his eighth year working with Lasting Adventures.

Kara

Yosemite Site Director & Marketing Manager

Kara grew up in a small town of Beaver, PA and loved spending every waking moment in the outdoors as a child. Once she was taken on her first backpacking trip in Yosemite National Park, Kara was hooked and eventually decided to change her career from the Fashion Industry to the Outdoors and that was the best decision she ever made. Kara then took an Outdoor Educator course with NOLS in the great Wind River Range for backpacking and rock climbing, got her Wilderness First Responder certification, and has since taken kids out into the outdoors from the White Mountains in New Hampshire to the desert in Joshua Tree National Park and challenged them in activities that include backpacking, rock climbing, white water kayaking and canoeing.

In her free time Kara loves going canyoneering, backpacking, trail running, researching new cheesy jokes, cooking and eating lots of yummy food, climbing multi-pitch routes in Red Rocks, road tripping, playing lots ‘o’ board games, writing for her blog, star-gazing, chasing rainbows and ultimately lounging in her hammock.

Kara believes in the philosophy that you should never stop learning and is very much looking forward to learning even more about Yosemite, where she got first bitten by the outdoors bug, and sharing that knowledge with all the participants on Lasting Adventures trips!

Hannah

Olympic Site Lead & Guide

Hannah grew up in Milwaukee, WI with a deep appreciation of the forested wetlands around her. While earning her bachelor’s degree, she joined her school’s outdoor recreation club and fell in love with leading backpacking trips. After some wandering around the mountain west and the Big Island of Hawaii, Hannah realized she wanted to pursue outdoor education as a career. She completed a semester course with NOLS, earned her WFR, Wilderness EMT, LNT Master Educator, and has spent the last three years working in a variety of outdoor industry positions. Now a resident of Port Angeles, WA, she loves to ski, paddle, climb, hike and bike around the beautiful Olympics. Her passion for outdoor recreation permeates every corner of her life, and she loves to share it with others!

Eric

Yosemite Program Manager & Guide

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Eric spent ample time tromping around the Pacific Coast and redwood forests with the Boy Scouts, learning foundational outdoor skills with friends. Yet the wonders just beyond his backyard – such as the Sierra – went unexplored. It wasn’t until a road trip just after graduating high school that Eric “discovered” Yosemite, and the place grabbed him and didn’t let go. Since then, Yosemite has become what can only be described as a (hopefully healthy) obsession for Eric, a place of endless wonder whether alone or with others. Simultaneously, Eric grew into a passion for history and education, graduating with a degree in the two fields from The Evergreen State College, set on becoming a high school teacher. Thus, Lasting Adventures represents a unique joining of Eric’s passions: an opportunity to cultivate curiosity and encourage others to ‘fall in love with the world’ in a place which engenders those inspired feelings like nowhere else. The stoke is real!

2024 Outdoor Educators and Guide Staff

Dyson

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Dyson grew up exploring the Monterey Bay and Santa Cruz Mountains, where he gained a passion for learning and spending time in nature. He got his first taste of backpacking in the Trinity Alps, leading him to become an outdoor guide for George Washington University. As an undergraduate he earned a degree in Creative Writing and English and led backpacking trips in Virginia and the Grand Canyon. He enjoys reading, writing, hiking, paddling, snowboarding and observing wildlife. With a deep love for the community and adventure found on backpacking trips, Dyson is excited for another summer with everyone on the trail!

Anna

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Anna grew up hiking and canoeing in Washington state. She found her passion for the outdoors at a young age, exploring many of the wonderful trails around Mount Rainier. Anna recently completed her degree in Hydrology and has a passion for water conservation. Her love of exploring new places has led her to hike in National Parks in ND, SD, AZ, UT, CA, MT, OR, and Alaska. With so many great hiking trails, winters in Washington led to cross-country and downhill skiing.  She has hiked the Wonderland Trail as well as the PCT through Washington and Oregon. Anna spends her winter time as both a scuba diving instructor and ski instructor. This is her second season at Lasting Adventures, and she is very excited to share the Olympics with you. 

John

Guide & Outdoor Educator

John grew up in Denver, CO, and spent much of his childhood and adolescence backpacking and camping in the nearby Rockies, where he fostered a love for the mountains. Right after high school, John began rock climbing and, through this new passion, found a deeper connection to the outdoors and nature and a more significant appreciation for community. He has since spent a lot of time exploring the country, from remote rock climbing trips in Wyoming’s Wind River Range to canyoneering adventures in Southeastern Utah. After spending years developing this passion, John is excited to share it with others and is eager to introduce people to the value of being outside.

This will be John’s fourth year with Lasting Adventures, and he is excited to continue to grow his passion for outdoor education this season!

Margaret

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Margaret grew up in Madison, WI, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin- Madison where she studied French and ‘Health & the Humanities.’ After college, she went on a month-long backpacking trip in Alaska and fell a little too in love with the mountains, prompting a quick move out West to do conservation and trail work across CA, UT, CO, and AZ. She is passionate about increasing access and representation outdoors, having worked on the first all-women’s trail crew on the Colorado 14ers and spending her winters teaching at an adaptive ski school in Tahoe. She brings her positive mental attitude and love for type 2 fun on every adventure, and she can’t wait to make more memories in her second season with Lasting Adventures!

Dawson

Guide & Outdoor Educator

A veteran Lasting Adventures guide, Dawson has spent the last four summers guiding in Yosemite and Olympic. Dawson grew up exploring the White Mountains of New Hampshire before heading to California for college. Over the years, he has backpacked nationwide and recently added his first international trip to Peru. During winter, Dawson works as a certified snowboard instructor in Oregon. On his days off,  he can be found lapping the terrain park or backcountry powder chasing on his split board. Dawson is passionate about environmental and mental health issues and hopes to integrate these passions into his work in the outdoors. Dawson is incredibly stoked to join Lasting Adventures for another summer and guide trips in the beautiful Pacific Northwest!

Jess

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Jess deeply believes in the power of community, connection, and the outdoors.  They fell in love with being outdoors while growing up near the Adirondacks in Upstate New York.  During fall and spring, Jess spends their time as the Waterfront Manager for Naturalists at Large on Catalina Island.  They are excited to come back to the Sierras to spend another season teaching in Yosemite!

Ian

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Ian grew up in a less outdoorsy family, independently seeking out smaller hiking trails to explore. Once he got to college in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, his exploration broadened his love for the outdoors until he pursued majoring in Adventure Education. Every day was spent hiking, paddling, skiing, and rock and ice climbing. He quickly bagged the 48 tallest mountains in the state and climbed many of the largest rock faces in the state as well. He has worked as a canoe camping and backpacking guide in the Whites and the Greens and has spent a season guiding and climbing in Yosemite. He is very excited to have another summer of adventures in one of the most iconic National Parks.

Jack

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Jack Curran is a Wilderness educator from Prescott, Arizona. Spending his free time rock climbing, hiking, and creating art, Jack has developed an intense love for natural spaces. Bringing an eclectic and spunky attitude of care and compassion to his work as an educator, he can’t imagine a better way to share his passion for the world than guiding Lasting Adventures!

Zachary

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Zach grew up in the mile-high city of Denver, Colorado. He grew up recreating in the outdoors with his family, biking, hiking, and traveling. After high school, he attended a two-week mountaineering trip in North Cascades National Park with Outward Bound. He has recently earned a B.A. in Adventure Education at Fort Lewis College. During school, Zach helped guide canyoneering, winter camping, and mountaineering trips for fellow students. He has explored his local San Juan Mountains and found a passion for backpacking, snowboarding, and climbing. Zach has previously spent summers backpacking guiding in the Trinity Alps. This will be Zach’s second season guiding for Lasting Adventures. When he is not guiding or searching for snow, he likes to hacky sack and play disc golf.

Rowan

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Rowan grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas where they spent their summers hiking, swimming, and wakeboarding. Rowan continued to cultivate their passion for the outdoors while enrolled at Colorado College, where they graduated with a degree in Film and a minor in Music. Rowan has backpacked all over the country and even abroad in Iceland. Rowan is passionate about recreating in nature and working with queer youth. When not backpacking, Rowan enjoys writing, photography, and playing their guitar. They couldn’t be more excited to spend their first summer with Lasting Adventures! 

Isabel

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Growing up in Alaska, Isabel was raised with a deep love and respect for the outdoors. She spent much of her childhood wandering around the woods by her house, encountering bears, moose, and the joys of nature. Although she loved many parts of life in Alaska, she has since slowly made her way down the west coast in search of more warmth and sun! First she graduated from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma Washington, where she studied Geoscience and Environmental Studies. Three years ago, she bought her first car and decided to move to sunny California and live in it! She has been exploring and falling in love with this incredible state ever since, and cannot wait to spend her first summer in the Sierras! 

Ella

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Ella is from Truckee, CA, where she fell in love with skiing, backpacking, hiking, and climbing. This will be her second season with Lasting Adventures and she is excited for another season in the high country! She is currently working on a degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Utah and spends her winters skiing in the Eastern Sierra. She is passionate about increasing access to outdoor recreation and sharing these impactful experiences with others!

Maggie

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Maggie grew up in Eugene, Oregon, where she found her connection to the earth while exploring the forests and mountains of the Oregon Cascades.  She found an amazing community in the outdoor program at her high school, where they hiked, rock climbed and adventured in the rain together.  Maggie now lives in San Luis Obispo, California where she is finishing up her undergraduate degree in Environmental Earth and Soil Science.  Maggie’s love for science intersects with her love for the outdoors at Cal Poly.  Her life includes a lot of yoga, hiking, farmers markets and ocean time.  She spent last summer river guiding on the Salmon River in Idaho, and she is stoked to get back in the mountains.  This will be her first summer guiding in Yosemite!

Isaac

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Isaac learned to love playing in the outdoors from a young age, adventuring around campgrounds and beaches with his brothers in Oregon. As a teenager, Isaac backpacked and rock-climbed his way up and down the West Coast with his pals, developing an appreciation for things like moss, rocks, and cowboy coffee. Nowadays, Isaac is a recent graduate of Pitzer College, where he earned his bachelor’s in Environmental Science and Spanish, and was also an outdoors guide. He likes to run on trails, eat lots of chicken and rice, and learn campfire tunes on the spoons. Isaac is deeply passionate about sharing his love and knowledge of the outdoors with others, and he can’t wait to spend the summer guiding in Yosemite with Lasting Adventures!

Kate

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Kate grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, spending her summers at camp in Michigan, where she fell in love with the outdoors. After college, she spent four months exploring Europe before returning to work on prairie restoration in her hometown, learning more about the importance of native habitat and equitable access to outdoor spaces. After a long camping-filled road trip across the country to work in Outdoor Education in California, Kate learned that the ‘West Coast is the best coast,’ and she can’t wait to start in Olympic this summer!

Rae

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Rae I grew up just outside Seattle and found her love of the outdoors in college where she majored in Environmental science and Biology at the University of Oregon. While in school she worked with the outdoor program leading all kinds of trips in the backcountry. Traveling to places such as Nepal and South Africa kindled a great passion for the exploration of the outdoors and a sense of stewardship, she hopes to inspires the same passions in those around her. This is Rae’s first summer with Lasting Adventures and she is very excited to join the team.  

Maddie

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Maddie grew up in Northern California immersed in nature and has always felt most at home in the outdoors. She has been living and frolicking on the central coast of California for the last four years and recently received her degree in Environmental Management and Protection from Cal Poly SLO. Maddie loves to spend her time learning new things, running with friends, botanizing, and settling into a good book. She spent last summer backpacking through Yosemite’s beautiful High Country surveying alpine plants and is stoked to return to the park and share her love and knowledge of its natural wonders. 

Haley

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Haley grew up in North Carolina, and developed a love for the outdoors exploring the Appalachian mountains whether camping, hiking, backpacking, or just soaking in the great views. She attended University of North Carolina Wilmington to study Sociology where she got the chance to explore the coastal region and fell in love with leading kayaking and backpacking trips and making a lasting impact on people’s relationship to nature. She believes the outdoors are for everyone and is excited to spread her love of adventure through Lasting Adventures!

Alé

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Alé is from El Paso, TX. This might be her favorite city in the world. It is where her love for the outdoors began, in the Franklin Mountains. Because of her adventures, she became super passionate about facilitating adventures for youth. She feels that they deserve it and believes they’ll grow to be better humans because of it! Her other main focus is bouldering. She has grown in a myriad of ways because of this sport. It has brought her an endless amount of gifts. From rough finger tips to dumpster flowers and a heart full of grit and stoke. 

Nick

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Nick grew up in central Wisconsin, where he spent his childhood exploring the woods, canoeing, camping, and hiking with his family. Spending much time outdoors at a young age sparked a lifelong passion for being active outside and a drive to encourage others to do the same. Nick graduated with a degree in kinesiology at UW-La Crosse in 2021 before moving west to Colorado where he worked at an adventure summer camp. This ignited a passion and love for working in the outdoor industry and has led him to pursue other outdoor ventures.

His love for the outdoors and exploration has led him on many adventures throughout the country and the world and has now brought him to Yosemite to guide for his first year.

Zuzanna

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Zuzanna grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts. Having spent many summers visiting family in the beautiful countryside of Poland, she found her love for travel and backpacking through trips to the mountains. Zuzanna’s major hobbies include climbing, hiking, yoga, painting, and cooking (/eating). Since completing her bachelor’s in conservation at UMass Amherst, Zuzanna’s dream is to work as an Environmental educator and artist, fostering resilient communities and creatively exploring the natural world. She’s shared her love of the outdoors as a hiking leader for her school’s Outing Club and as an educator in the Mt. Hood National Forest. She’s excited to spend her first summer at Lasting Adventures, frolicking around Yosemite Valley and making new friends.

Han

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Hannah is your average 20-something Michigander with a huge heart for adventure, human connection, and the great outdoors. She graduated from Western Michigan University with a degree in Global & International Studies. Her love for nature developed at a young age through weekend camping trips in northern Michigan, summers spent working on a ranch in Montana, and many spontaneous road trips to various national parks with friends. Hannah has a soft spot for working with youth and is passionate about breaking down barriers to outdoor education and recreation. Excited to trade the Great Lakes for the Pacific Northwest, she is looking forward to guiding this summer with Lasting Adventures!

Noah

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Noah grew up just outside of Boston, MA, and fell in love with the outdoors on a NOLS semester course in the Wind River Range after high school. From there, he put his learnings in outdoor leadership and backpacking to use on trips through the White Mountains, Northern California, and on Mount Rainier. After moving across the country to Southern California, Noah is finishing up his time playing baseball and studying in Claremont, CA before he transfers next year to finish his degree in Mechanical Engineering. These days, Noah can often be found drawing, running, or playing sports. This is Noah’s first summer with Lasting Adventures, and he is excited to share his love for the outdoors in Olympic!

Julien

Guide & Outdoor Educator

Julien grew up in Massachusetts and fell in love with the outdoors while hiking through the White Mountains of New Hampshire and Maine. He discovered a passion for outdoor education and guiding backcountry trips while attending Tufts University, where he majored in Education and Child Development. He loves to spend his free time wandering through his local forests, enjoying live music, and eating good meals. Julien has spent the past year working at an outdoor education center in Vermont and can’t wait to spend his summer on the West Coast as a guide in Olympic. 

Claire

Marketing and Operations Assistant

Claire spent most of her childhood riding horses down trails that she cleared through the woods of Rockbridge County, Virginia, where she first learned to feel at home in the outdoors. After discovering her love for photography and writing in a high school photojournalism course, Claire moved to upstate New York to pursue a degree in Photography, which she is currently finishing at Bard College. Leaning into her passion for nature, Claire has produced a series of photography projects that explore human interactions with the natural world. She is also a writer, editor, and director of the Bard College Newspaper. Last summer, Claire worked on a chainsaw crew for the Conservation Corps in the Rocky Mountains, and this summer, she is eager to use her creative talents to support the outdoor industry!

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